Draft-operated scraper



C. F. POOLE DRAFT OPERATED SCRAPER Original Filed Dec. 13. 1925 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 1'" WW I Patented Oct. 4, 1927.

'UNITED STATES 1,644,223 PATENT OFFICE.

eminence F. rooms, or nvensron, i-L'LIiIOIa AssIeNon roeoonivrim iv iAi rnr'eor-nn- ING COMPANY, OF CHICAGQ, 'ILLInoIs, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

DRAFT-OPERATED SCRAPER.

Application filed December 13, 1923 Serial 1Y0. 680,326. Renewed March 28, 1 927. a

--1,408' O8O, issued February .28, 1922 to Qh'arles'E. 'Davis, which is especially designed for use in loading out coal-orisimilar loose material from adjacent working faces of mine rooms. Such scrapers are adapted forreciprocable movement by. means ,of a head rope and a tail rope, the tail rope having movable connection at the rear end of the scraper. Means are further provided for engaging and retarding the outer side of thescraper, i. e.',the side away from the working facefso that'when thev scraper 1's drawn rearwardly'into the farcorner of the room its initial forward movement will be directed toward-the working face to gatherv theloose material, especially in the corner of ao the room. 7

g The resent invention consists primarily in coin ining with an apparatus as. 'above described a pivotally opening scraperlsuch as was disclosed in theapplicationlof Charles filed March 26, 1923, whereby the operation ofthe scraper is facilitated and made'semlautomatic, as will hereinafter more f1 ally appear. .The present invention also provides improvements in the details of construction of a pivotally opening scraper. v Details of the invention may be best understood by reference to the accompanying drawingain which: V

Figure 1 is a rear view in perspective of as'c'rap er constructed in accordance with my invention;-

. I r Figure 2 is a plan view of'the scraper showing it in closed position infull lines and partially openin dotted lines;.- I

Figures 3, 4:, and 6 are views illustrating atypical installation of the scraper in 'mine and showing the scraper'in fourdif- "ferent positions during its loading operationa E. -Davis, bearing-Serial Number, 627,548;

7 Referrin g nowto details, the

prises a body made up of two sidewalls, 10,

.71 1, preferably divergingfrom the rear ,to the front end thereof, although other forms and shapes of scraper body may be provid ed, if desired. The scraperis preferably bottomless, the walls 10 11being;pr o vided with inwardly extending flanges 12,, 12 along their lower margins to form cutting edges for engaging the material tolbe. gathered. The wallslO and 11 are. pivotally connected by a hinge, which maybe of any suitable TOIDI fOI' instance it may comprisea pair of eyes 18, 13 on one.wall. 10, .andan ntermediate .eye 14 on the other well :11, with a hinge pin 15 ofany approved pattern extending therethrough. 'As shown helrein the side walls 10,.11are hingedfcentrally o f thev rear end although under some condit ons it may be desirable to vary thefpos ition of the hinged connection toward one side of thescraper.

Means are provided for limiting-the movement of the scraper sides toward each other. In the form shown. this 'meanscoin prises, a pair of telescoping members 16 andl'fi pivotally connected respectively-near the forward ends of the scraper walls. Asl shownhere'in the member 16 .comprisesa bar and i Stl'n O V- able longitudinally in ahhollowpi'pe forming the member 17. -The .arrangment is sue that the free end of the fpipev l'l lent es a stop 18 ontlie bar .to limit the'iii wa'rd movement of the walls 10 and 11. I

Draft means for the scraper comprises a head. rope 20 connected to the forward end ofthe scraper bysuitablenieans such as the terminals 21, 21,secured respectively tofthe forward ends of theside walls, 10 and .11, and a tail rope 22 inovabl y connected tlofthe rear end of the scraper. Asshowh herein the tail rope connection comprises asuitable link 23 movable along .aro d or bar 24Qhaving connection at its rear end toone of the side wall members, such as the 10, and "extending forwardly around this wall to a point intermediate the ends offhe scraper. The link 23 mayfreely move aiong the bar 24: during the operation of the. scrap er, as -Wlll, hereinafter more fully appear. Itis also preferable to provide a rearWardly extending notch 25 on the ba'r 24; ata point vsubstantiallyin alongitudinal centenl-ine of p the scraper, that is to say, in alignment with the pivotal point of the two side walls 10 and and ' "with the fixed jack 35.

adjacent the working face, indicatedat 30.

A side wall or rib 31 meets the working face 30 at anangle, forming a corner as shown in these figures. In Figure 3 a pile of loose material has been deposited on the floor adjacent the working face, the toe or forward fedge of this pile being indicated at 32. The --portion of the loose material adjacent the side wall 31 is preferably cleared away for a "purpose that will presently appear. The

" ment in the usual manner along the working face as well known to those familiar with scraper is installed for reciprocable movemining methods. The tail rope 22 is trained over a sheave or guide 34 fixed by a jack or similar means against the side wall or rib 31 and adjacent the working face substantially as shown in the diagram. A suitable stop may comprise a jack 35 of the usual kind arranged adjacent the sheave 34 but spaced therefrom in the path of rearward movement of the scraper and on the outer side of the tail rope 22.

"In the loading operation the scraper 1s pulled rearwardly by the tail-rope into the position substantially shown. in Figure 4, in which position it will be noted that the stop 26 on the scraper is brought into engagement This will retard the side 11 of the scraper so as to cause an unbalanced tension of the scraper, tending'to swing it pivotally toward the working face 30. As this swinging movement begins the link 23 is free to move alongthe bar 24 into position substantially as shown in Figure 4. This movement of the link tends to swing the scraper side 10 pivotally on its hinge into open position as shown in Figure 5. In this position it will be observed that the hinged portions 10 and 11 are spread apart so that the head rope terminals 21, 21 are substantially in a straight line to limit further movement of said walls. The scraper is thus automatically brought into position to initially engage the pile of loose material while directed toward the working face." The initial forward movement is commenced by placing tension on the head rope 21. It will be observed that the initial draft on the head rope will be exerted directly on the innerhinged wall 10 so that the movement of the scraper will be initially deflected from its normal path of forward movement due to the greater resistance of the material engaged by the'inner wall 10. Thus the scraper not only is automatically directed toward the working face before its initial forward movement, but alio has a tendency to hug the working face when it gets under way. When the load is gathered it is pulled forwardly to the point of discharge in the usual manner and then returned for another load, whereupon the operation above described is repeated.

Although I have shown and described one form in which my invention maybe embodied, it will be understood that the construction and arrangement of the parts may be altered without departing from the spirit and scope of my invention. I. do not therefore, wish to be understood as limiting myself to the specific construction illustrated herein excepting as specifically limited in the appended claims.

I claim asmy invention: 1

1. A scraper provided with forwardly extendingwalls movable laterally with respect to each other, a rope having movable connection with said scraper at the rear end thereof, and means'for retarding the move- 1116111101 the scraper at a point on one side thereof during its normal movement in the rearward direction. 1

2. A scraper provided with forwardly extending walls movable laterally with respect to each other, means for limiting the inward movement of said walls, a head rope, and a tail rope having slidable connection along the rear and side of said scraper.

3. A scraper provided with forwardly extending walls movable laterally with respect to each other, means for limiting the inward movement of said walls, a head rope, a tail rope having slidable connection along the rear and one side of said scraper, and-a projection on the: other side of the scraper adapted to engage a fixed support.

4. Ina scraping apparatus, a scraper provided with forwardly extending walls movable laterally res'pective to each other, means limiting the inward'movement of said walls, a drag line having two terminal members each connected with one of said walls, the total length of said terminal members being greater than the distance betweentheir're spective points of connection with the side walls when the latter are in closed position, and a tail rope having slidable connection along the rear end and one side of said scraper. I

5. In ascrapmg' apparatus, a scraper provided with forwardly extending walls movable laterally respective to each otherQnieans limiting the inward movement of said walls,

a drag line having two terminal'members. each connected with one of said walls, the

total length of said terminal members being greater than the distance between their respective points of connection with'the side walls when the latter are in closed position, a tail rope having slidable connection along the rear end and, one side of said scraper, and a projection on the other side of the scraper adapted to engage a fixed support.

6. The method of handling a rope operated scraping device which consists in posi tioning a fixed member at a, predetermined position in the rearward line of movement of the scraper, pulling the scraper rearwardly to engage said member at a point on one side of the scraper and continuing the rearward pull on said scraper with said fixed member as an axis to shift a movable side wall portion of said scraper laterally into position to engage a portion of the material to be gathered, and thereafter causing tension to be placed on the drag line whereby the resistance of the material engaged by ,said movable wall portion will cause the entire scraper to be initially deflected at an angle to the drag line.

Signed at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, this 10th day of December, A. D. 1923.

, CLARENCE F. POOLE. 

